Sitting on the sofa, Karel sat in deep thought, worrying about his fate in the upcoming monthly exams. His grades in biology and chemistry were fine, but what about the other subjects?
"I think I need a professional tutor" he muttered softly.
Someone who could teach him in an easy-to-understand way, someone truly competent.
After thinking about someone who fit the criteria, a smile tugged at his lips.
He reached for his phone, quickly typed a few words on the screen, and then pressed the phone to his ear.
A few moments later, a deep, tired voice answered from the other end.
"Hello?"
"Come to the address I'll send you now" he said bluntly.
Before the person on the other end could respond, Karel hung up and sent the address to the male protagonist.
After sending the message, he stared at the chat app.
His eyes landed on a familiar name in the chat list. His fingers hesitated as he opened the chat history with his math teacher, Arthur.
At the top of the conversation, there was a simple profile picture: just a laptop screen, nothing remarkable.
As he began scrolling through the messages, his brows furrowed. The chat consisted of only a few cold greetings, nothing special.
In his memory, they had only met a few times for lunch or to hand over exam answer sheets.
Karel then recalled how the original owner of this body had only used Arthur.
There was no love or attraction in his heart because the original owner's feelings were entirely reserved for Alison, the female lead.
In this world dictated by the novel's author, both he and Daniel could only see one person in their lives and that person was the female lead.
But looking back over the past few days, it seemed that Arthur had deeply loved the original owner of this body.
Karel wasn't sure. He felt confused by the way adults expressed their love.
For some reason, he opened the photo gallery on the phone. He was shocked to see just how many pictures of Alison there were.
"Seriously? This many photos?" he muttered in frustration, scowling as he found over 7,000 photos of Alison filling the gallery.
All this time, he had been reluctant to tinker with the original Karel's phone. But now, feeling slightly annoyed, he started deleting every photo related to Alison.
However, as he scrolled further, his lips suddenly curled into a smile when he stumbled upon a photo of a man focused on his laptop.
The photo only showed the man's broad back clad in a white shirt. Karel guessed it was taken secretly by the original owner of the body.
Without a second thought, he immediately set the picture as his phone wallpaper.
Since he was already tinkering with the phone, he decided to check all the apps and settings of the original Karel's device.
Karel stared at the phone, now featuring its new wallpaper, with an unblinking gaze. His smile grew wider, almost closing his eyes.
Ding-dong!
When the doorbell rang, his smile gradually faded. With a hint of reluctance, Karel stood up from the sofa and walked to the door of his apartment.
When the door was fully opened, he saw the male protagonist standing there, looking displeased, with beads of sweat trickling down his forehead and neck.
Daniel's face clearly displayed exhaustion and irritation about being there.
Karel knew this was Daniel's work hour, but a debt was a debt.
"Come in," Karel said flatly, without any expression. Without waiting for a response, he turned around and walked back to the sofa.
Daniel obeyed Karel's command with heavy steps, closing the apartment door while trying to suppress his annoyance.
All he could do was close his eyes and take deep breaths to avoid acting out while facing Karel.
Karel sat on the sofa with a smug posture, arms crossed over his chest, and stared at Daniel standing in front of him.
His eyes scrutinized Daniel from head to toe.
Daniel's face was oval-shaped with a sharp jawline, almond-shaped eyes of deep black that could captivate anyone, a straight nose, and thin lips.
Daniel's skin appeared tanned, likely from working outdoors frequently. However, when Karel noticed Daniel's muscular arms, he felt a twinge of envy.
Karel touched his chin, rubbing it slowly as if he were evaluating merchandise. If he had to rate Daniel, the score would probably be 9.75 out of 10.
Meanwhile, Daniel, who was being appraised, began shooting sharp glares, his eyes filled with fury.
That kind of look—Daniel was familiar with it. He had often seen people give him the same predatory gaze when they first met, like a pack of hungry wolves.
Unconsciously, he clenched his fists. He was sure he knew exactly why Karel had summoned him here.
"Maybe... your body?"
His eyes widened as he recalled Karel's remark at the hospital.
If Daniel's eyes could emit lasers, Karel's body would probably be split in half by now.
Unfazed by Daniel's expression, Karel continued to gaze at him with an assessing look. The original owner's face was no less handsome than the male protagonist's, scoring a perfect 10 out of 10. Both he and the protagonist were likely the same height, around 179 cm.
Karel felt his body heat up as he noticed Daniel's piercing glare.
Frowning, Karel was confused as to why the male protagonist was already angry at him when he hadn't even done anything.
He let out a long sigh, feeling that protagonists and antagonists were never meant to get along, even though he had done a good deed by paying for the surgery bill.
"Sit."
Reluctantly, Daniel sat on the sofa opposite Karel. "Just get to the point. What do you want?"
Karel stood and began pulling books out of his bag, placing them in front of Daniel. Daniel squinted, confused.
"Teach me math and physics" Karel demanded.
Daniel looked even more bewildered. "Don't you always get perfect scores?" he asked skeptically.
"Shut up! You've been paid fifty thousand, and one more thing don't you dare tell anyone about this."
With that, Karel opened a physics book and pulled out the notes he had worked hard on for the past few days, though he still couldn't understand how to solve the problems.
"How do you solve this?"
Daniel froze for a moment, unable to believe what he had just heard. After seeing this, he was certain the man in front of him had definitely cheated during exams.
Daniel's eyes returned to Karel, now filled with hatred toward someone who exploited his family's power for personal gain.
"Hey, don't just stare off into space."
Daniel took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, trying to calm himself.
Patiently, Daniel began explaining the basic concepts Karel needed, using simple and easy-to-understand methods.
Karel looked at his book and, for the first time, felt happy because he finally understood. "Well, never underestimate the male protagonist."
After grasping the formulas, he became even more diligent in studying. Feeling that physics was easy, he even forgot to sleep because he was so engrossed in learning.
o0o